Apologies for these newbie questions, but I would appreciate if someone could tell me when one needs a personal cgi-bin? I suppose the opposite is a shared bin? (I assume the server supports cgi.) Also, I don't know when to prefer Linux to Windows (and vice versa).
Thank you
Anders

If You want to run Perl & PHP applications sou should choose linux & if you want to run ASP & Cold Fusion applications you should go for Windows.


:cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:

The main difference between a shared and private CGI bin is that your scripts won't be that secure on a shared system unless your ISP prevents direct uploads to it. If you are on a shared CGI bin then make sure that only your ISP has access.

This often has a useful side effect (especially if you are a newbie) in that the ISP will often check the script for integrity beforehand.

If you have a private CGI bin then you can be fairly sure that noone can see your scripts.

One good question to ask if you are to host your website on an Apache webserver is wether or not CGI scripts are run through a SuExec wrapper. This means that all scripts are executed within the security profile of the owning user, which in turn means that a script cannot 'affect' files owned by other users. If your ISP does not use SuExec then think very carefully before hosting sensitive information on the server...

Another suggestion, if you are hosted on Apache with shared CGI bin, is to enable scripts to be executed from within your website's main directory. This can be done using .htaccess files (where enabled by the ISP) and is another method of keeping your scripts away from prying eyes. All you have to do is upload a file called '.htaccess' (including the '.') with the appropriate contents (example below).

Options +ExecCGI
AddType application/x-httpd-cgi .cgi
AddType application/x-httpd-cgi .pl

WRT to the Windows/Linux argument I would say horses for courses. They both do very well at what they do best...

Hope this helps.

Thanks very much indeed, Mark Sutton! This more than answers my questions.
Anders